The forests and valley paths around Luxembourg City are the best dog walking in the country, and they are working landscapes: hunted, farmed, and full of wildlife raising young. Most conflicts between dog owners and everyone else out there come down to two things, a dog off lead where it should not be, and an owner who did not read the sign.
Hunting season
Organised hunts take place in the autumn and winter months and are announced locally, with notices at the entrances to the affected woodland. Those notices exist to keep walkers and dogs out of an area on specific days, and they are worth taking seriously rather than treating as a suggestion.
Practical approach during the season: check for notices at the trailhead, stay on marked paths, keep the dog close or on a long line, avoid dawn and dusk in hunted woodland, and put something high-visibility on the dog. A brightly coloured harness or a lit collar is cheap and sensible.
If you find a hunt in progress, do not cross it. Turn back, take another route, and keep the dog on a short lead until you are well clear.
Wildlife, the rest of the year
Deer, boar, foxes, hares and ground-nesting birds all use the same woods and field edges. A dog chasing wildlife is a serious matter: it causes injury and exhaustion to the animal, it can put your dog in front of a car or a boar, and it is exactly the behaviour that leads to restrictions on where dogs are allowed.
The sensitive period runs through spring and early summer, when young animals are on the ground and cannot move away. In that window, keep dogs on paths and use a long line in open grassland and along river banks.
Boar deserve a specific mention: a sow with young will not retreat, and a dog that goes in will be hurt. If you see or hear boar, leash the dog, retreat quietly the way you came, and do not let it investigate.
Livestock and farmland
On a lead near livestock, without exception, including for a dog that has never shown interest. Do not cross fields with animals in them, do not let a dog into standing crops, and close gates behind you.
This is not only courtesy. Worrying livestock has legal consequences for the owner, and farmers in this region are entitled to expect that a dog on their land is under control.
The recall question, honestly
A recall that works in a park at midday is not the same as a recall that works when a deer breaks cover twenty metres away. The competition is enormous, and most dogs lose the argument.
Test yours honestly before you trust it in woodland: with another dog at a distance, mid-sniff on something interesting, and at dusk. If it is not near perfect in those conditions, a five to ten metre long line attached to a harness gives the dog most of the freedom with none of the risk. That is a reasonable permanent arrangement for many dogs rather than an admission of failure.
Train an emergency stop as a separate signal, used rarely and paid extravagantly every single time. It is the cue that stops a dog before the chase begins rather than after.
Other people in the woods
Forest tracks are shared with mountain bikers, horse riders, forestry vehicles and families with small children. Bikes arrive quietly and fast, and a loose dog in the middle of a track is a genuine hazard to the rider as well as to itself.
Horses deserve particular care: put the dog on a lead, step off the track on the same side as your dog, and stand still while they pass. A dog that runs at a horse can cause a serious accident, and riders in this region are entitled to expect better.
Forestry work areas are marked and closed for a reason, and the machinery involved cannot see a dog at all. Take the diversion.
What to do if your dog disappears in the woods
Stay where the dog was last seen and have somebody else remain at the point you entered from, because dogs frequently return to both. Call cheerfully rather than shouting, crouch or turn side-on rather than standing and facing, and if you see the dog, move away from it rather than towards it.
Leave something that smells of home at the last sighting: a jumper, the dog's bed, a bowl of strongly smelling food. If the dog has not returned within the hour, report it to the police and to the commune, and tell the nearest veterinary practices, because a found dog is usually taken to the closest one to be scanned.
The practical kit
- A long line and a well-fitted harness
- High-visibility or a light on the dog from October to March
- A tick hook, because forest edges are where they wait
- Water, since streams may be dry, contaminated or, in warm still conditions, carrying algae
- A phone with the location shared if you walk alone in the woods
Afterwards
Check the whole dog by hand for ticks, paying attention to the head, neck, armpits and groin, and check the pads and the fur between the toes. Note the date if you remove a tick.
If your dog did chase something, do not punish it on its return: you would be punishing the coming back. Note what happened, go back to the long line for a few weeks, and rebuild the recall in easier conditions.
General information for dog owners in Luxembourg, not veterinary or legal advice. For your own dog, ask your vet, a qualified behaviourist or your commune. How this journal is written and checked.
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